Philip Eade has worked as a criminal barrister, English teacher, and journalist. His first book, Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters, was runner-up for the Biographers' Club Prize, and a New York Times' Editors' Pick; his second, Prince Philip, became a Sunday Times bestseller. He lives in London.
Philip Eade has written a brisk, lively, and wonderfully
entertaining account of the life of a strange, tormented, unique
creature. Through page after page one finds oneself laughing aloud.
--John Banville, New York Review of Books
Although there have been several other excellent biographies of
Evelyn Waugh, this is perhaps the most penetrating and insightful
one to date.....For all the value of the newly available sources
and the good use to which Mr. Eade has put them, in the end it is
his biographical skills and crisp way with words and phrase that
make this such a valuable tool for understanding the perplexing
figure. --Martin Rubin, Washington Times "Any biography of Waugh is
entertaining because he was so witty a man, and Mr. Eade does not
fail to entertain. He is not only fair to Waugh, moreover; he
evidently likes him. It's good to read an admiring rather than a
debunking biography." --Wall Street Journal "This crowded, witty
biography follows Waugh from the ancestral home in Somerset...to
the jungles of Brazil.... Eade plunges into correspondence and
unpublished family papers to explore the writer's obsessions with
social status and Catholicism, his jackknife turns from affection
to contempt, and his torturous ambition." --The New Yorker Eade
recounts Waugh's life in an admirably economic, straightforward
manner, with a nice sense of measure and in a prose style free of
jargon and cliché. He neither Freudianizes Waugh nor condemns his
lapses into social savagery. Without a trace of tendentiousness,
free of all doctrine, the biographer seeks to understand the
strange behavior of his subject through telling the story of his
life without commenting censoriously on it. The task is far from a
simple one. --Joseph Epstein, The Claremont Review Entertaining and
meticulously researched....Eade approaches his subject with empathy
and an archaeologist's determination to excavate the past.... [He]
skillfully narrates the ups and downs of the writer's life, from
his conversion to Catholicism to his determined work on Brideshead
Revisitedduring wartime. Waugh's episodes of outrageous behavior,
heavy drinking, and generosity to fellow writers are all examined
with admirable evenhandedness. -- Harvard Review Unlike some of
Waugh's biographers, Eade does not start from the premise that
thetwentieth century's great master of English prose was a fiend in
human form: a wise decision that allows him to see, and portray, a
complex personality in full. --George Weigel, First Things
One gets the sense throughout his work that Eade has set his hounds
to sniff outthe documents and interviews that give the truth, even
if unsensational, ratherthan the racy or amusing anecdote; yet in
the end his evenhandedness serves tosharpen rather than blur the
likeness he has crafted. In sum, Eade succeeds ingiving a
convincing picture of a complex man--one more interesting, in
humanterms, than the portrait the artist gave us of himself. --Paul
V. Mankowski, First Things [Eade's] new biography deconstructs the
monster and reattaches the man to the human race. --David
Pryce-Jones, National Review For even more laughs, Philip Eade's
Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited demonstrates that Waugh's life,
already done by divers hands, really is worth another visit. --John
Banville, GUARDIAN Best Books of 2016 Eade's new biography draws on
unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs to explore the eccentric
larger-than-life story of one of the most acclaimed novelists of
the 20th century. Will send readers back to the novels in droves.
--FINANCIAL TIMES Books of the Year Anyone with the slightest
interest in Evelyn Waugh - and who has not been intrigued by his
steady return to favour? - should buy, and keep, Philip Eade's
Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited. Why? Because it is packed with
brand new, fascinating information about Waugh, his family, his
friends and lovers. As well, it "rebalances" a number of
entrenched, skewed perceptions of man and soldier. And it is
irresistibly readable. --Donat Gallagher, editor of THE ESSAYS,
ARTICLES AND REVIEWS OF EVELYN WAUGH Essential . . . compelling . .
. Eade's pacey new biography delivers the raw material of Waugh's
life. . . . Treat the Waugh aficionado in your life. --SUNDAY TIMES
Books of the Year "Eade is a gifted narrator and a master at
providing the right quote at the right time at just the right
length." --The Washington Free Beacon Thoughtful and intimate....
Drawing on previously unavailable letters, manuscripts and diaries,
Eade illuminates connections between Waugh's much-lauded fiction
and the author's concealed emotional life.... A convincing portrait
of a flawed but gifted artist." --Booklist (starred review) Well
crafted.... Eade focuses on Waugh's colorful personal life and
exploits with the 'smart set' of his time.... Eade's treatment
reveals a man of astonishing awareness of his gifts and failings,
great sincerity, and wit. --Publishers Weekly If you like your
Waugh fast, furious, and funny, there is much to enjoy in Philip
Eade's sparkling Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited.... Waugh's letters
are a joy to read, and Eade's coup is his access to a hitherto
unpublished cache of them. --The Times (London) [Eade] is an
assiduous researcher with a considerable narrative gift. He also,
crucially, likes his subject. Waugh never much cared what anyone
thought of him, but Eade does, and time and again he finds
justification for what previous biographers have considered
questionable behavior.... This is an exemplary piece of work. --The
Daily Mail (London) Brisk and entertaining.... intelligent and
illuminating.... the best single-volume life of the author
available. To read [this book] is to experience a reckoning with a
man whose life, like his work, is both a solace and a stimulus.
--Irish Times A bright, breezy, and sympathetic portrait. --The
Mail on Sunday (London) Read this book.... Eade is excellent on
tracing the sources of Waugh's delights and horrors, from his life
to his work and back again: the failures, the successes, the
disappointments, the endless grist to the authorial mill.
--Literary Review (U.K.) There isn't a single dull page in the
whole book, and it could easily be twice as long without
overstaying its welcome. - The Irish Independent (Dublin) It is the
force of Waugh's energy-- - creative, sexual and social-- - that
crackles through the pages of Philip Eade's meticulous and wildly
entertaining biography.... . . . Eade supplies an astonishing
wealth of detail... . . . and is sympathetic to Waugh's many
failings without being sycophantic. -- Daily Express A splendid
treat. Eade's exploration of the most significant episodes in the
life of this fearless, deeply melancholic comedian is a most
worthwhile addition to the bowing shelf of Waughiana. - iNews
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
